PORT ANGELES — A 59-year-old Sequim resident remained in the Clallam County jail on $50,000 bail Tuesday after he allegedly intentionally struck an occupied vehicle, threatened children in a parking lot and fled from deputies.
John F. Barcellos was booked for investigation of four counts of second-degree assault, hit-and-run-attended, eluding a police vehicle, obstructing a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest, according to a press release.
Clallam County Sheriff’s deputies said they received a report at 4:07 p.m. Saturday of a hit-and-run in the 3000 block of Woodcock Road in Sequim. The reporting party, a mother of a teenage driver, said her children had been the victim.
Deputies said that Barcellos had attempted to strike the vehicle three times with his vehicle and succeeded in hitting it once. The car was occupied by two juvenile passengers at the time, deputies said, adding that no injuries were reported.
Barcellos fled from the scene, deputies said.
Later that evening at about 9 p.m., deputies received a call regarding threats issued at a church north of Sequim. The reporting party said that her four younger children had been playing in the parking lot when an older man drove up, cursed them and told them to leave or he was going to kill them.
When the scared children ran off toward their home, he drove toward them at a high rate of speed, the caller said.
Barcellos and his vehicle matched the description provided by the children, deputies said.
He started his car while deputies told him to leave his car and, after speaking to them, drove away with law enforcement in pursuit, deputies said.
They said they pursued the vehicle onto Sequim-Dungeness Way traveling north, and attempted a pursuit intervention technique (PIT) twice unsuccessfully.
“As Barcellos approached the roundabout at Woodcock and Sequim-Dungeness at a high rate of speed he struck the roundabout curb causing him to go off road into a field,” the press release said.
He was taken into custody without further incident.
No one was hurt, deputies said.
